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Philippa Roxby
Only 5,000 people have been vaccinated out of a population of nearly 90 million.
And in the city of Goma, where the rollout has just started after numerous delays, there is a worrying lack of interest.
It means 1.3 million AstraZeneca doses, out of 1.7 million received in early March through Covax – the international fair access scheme – are being redistributed to other African countries for use before they expire at the end of June.
The reasons are complex:
- concerns over the potential link to rare blood clots in Europe delayed vaccine rollout in many African countries too, just as vaccination was starting.
- some European countries restricted use of the vaccine to certain age groups or gave away their doses altogether.
- as a result, harmful misinformation spread on social media about its safety.
There’s also a lack of trust in the systems and governments and a feeling Covid is less of a threat than many other deadly diseases like Ebola and measles.
A recent outbreak of measles in DR Congo killed more than 7,000 people – many of them children, while Ebola outbreaks regularly occur.
For some Goma residents, Covid is not visible. Claudine, 40, a cleaner, says she has never seen anyone who died from it and is not scared of it, unlike Ebola.
For others in the conflict-hit DR Congo, there are more pressing priorities than Covid-19
“The war kills a lot more people than corona does,” says Gabriel, 46, a taxi driver.
Josue, 23, a student, is put off by what he hears online and prefers to focus his energy on studying and then finding a job.
“We heard that Covid-19 would kill lots of people but much bigger problems are insecurity and unemployment, because we don’t know even if tomorrow we’ll be alive,” says John Remi Bahati, who is 35 and unemployed.
How many vaccines is Covax delivering?
In Africa, 42 out of 54 countries have joined Covax and received 18.3 million doses between them, with nearly eight million used so far.
The international scheme aims to ensure equal access to safe and effective Covid vaccines worldwide,
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine makes up more than 90% of doses supplied to Africa, which are manufactured in India.
Covax wants to vaccinate at least 20 percent of the African population by the end of 2021, with the first 3 percent – 90 million doses – going to health workers and other vulnerable groups. –BBC
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